


Underwater Caves

by Head_Of_Ianus



Category: James Bond (Craig movies), James Bond (Movies)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Being Lost, Fear of Death, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, James Bond Has Feelings, Underwater
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:35:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25264717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Head_Of_Ianus/pseuds/Head_Of_Ianus
Summary: The rocks feel rough and uneven underneath his fingertips, and they scratch his hands.Bond tries his best to concentrate on this simple detail.The sharp pain of breaking skin is easier to bear than to acknowledge the darkness surrounding him, the water dragging him around, the fact that he can‘t tell up from down anymore.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Underwater Caves

**Author's Note:**

> One of my biggest fears is getting lost in an underwater cave. Just the idea of it honestly makes my skin crawl... So you are just going to have to live through this with me, sorry :)) 
> 
> This fills the 007 Fest 2020 Angst Prompt "Cave", plus the free space for which I chose "Lost"

The rocks feel rough and uneven underneath his fingertips, and they scratch his hands.

Bond tries his best to concentrate on this simple detail.

The sharp pain of breaking skin is easier to bear than to acknowledge the darkness surrounding him, the water dragging him around, the fact that he can‘t tell up from down anymore.

It is easier to admit that than to admit Bond already knows he is lost.

All had been fine until he had found his line cut. One piece of rope to lead him through the countless corridor of the underwater cave, and it had been cut.

At first, he had convinced himself he‘d be fine. He knew the chambers and tunnels he had swum through. Couldn‘t be that hard to find his way back. It turns out to be impossible. Bond realizes this with every minute ticking by.

It is impossible to make it out an underwater cave once you lose your orientation. They never seem to make sense when the way to travel through them isn‘t predetermined. Living in the cave, the void is a physical being that stretches and roars to keep you in whenever you think you are close to breaching its borders, and its lover, water, is an awful playmate, thrashing you around like a toy.

The minutes ticking by are like stones accumulating in his stomach, and a burn is rising in his throat.

He wants to call out to Q, to anyone, just someone to help him. Still, the only one down here is him in the dark, trying to regain orientation without any leads and clues. The small cone of light from his headlight is swallowed by black after mere centimeters.

There is no voice in his ear to tell him where to go.

Like a kick to the gut, he realizes that he is lost and that he won‘t get out.

Still, he swims on, pressing through tunnels that do not want to let him go, passing rocks that hold onto his nylon suit and try to keep him, and his heart is skipping beats as he whips his head around and is solely met by stirred up silt.

Bond knows he's going through his oxygen supply too quickly.

He enters another part of the cave. Is it new? Has he been here before? He can‘t remember, he can‘t think at all. There is stirred up silt in his head as well, it is the string of thoughts coming and fading without sense and in rapid succession. He wants to listen to his training, wants to latch onto a simple protocol to save himself. He is met by gnawing nothingness and finds no answer to his request.

Bond floats out a bit more, and the grip of the rocks against his body releases, bit by bit until there is nothing surrounding him but the water pressing in from every side. And then it's time to stop. There is no ground underneath him nor above him, there is just the void that never seems to end. He doesn‘t try to keep going. It's time to stop.

Concentrating, he still tries to think, tries to find a way out. He always does find a way out, after all.

But when he looks around, there is nothing to left to help him. There is still no Q in his ear. No one will notice he is missing for a few more hours even after his oxygen runs out. They won‘t send anyone after him for a long time after that, either. They cannot find him in time if they ever find him at all. Q, Eve, Bill, M? They will think he's just vanished again and that he is going to return eventually, even as his corpse would be floating through the water, forgotten.

They will never even know what's happened to him. They are going to be stuck wondering. Bond knows why throat his clogging up and burning.

He tries to stay calm, but something hot and wet prickles against his cheek underneath his mask, and he's starting to gulp in air, and as he floats, Bond lets himself give in.

His mind starts rationalizing that he is going to die, and he lets himself float, hopeless.


End file.
